Full Superloop Adelaide 500 schedule revealed

The first official Virgin Australia Supercars Championship session of 2019 will start at 5:30pm Adelaide time on Thursday February 28.

A full schedule for the Superloop Adelaide 500, Supercars' traditional season opener on February 28-March 3, has been released.

For the first time, Supercars will run on the Thursday of the event, previously the domain of support categories.

Thursday's 30-minute Practice 1 sets the tone for Supercars' new twilight running, which also includes a significantly later start to Saturday's race.

The Thursday session commences at 5:30pm local time (ACDT) as part of the day's overall program that now runs until 6:45pm.

Practice 2 and 3 for Supercars will start at 11:40am and 2:50pm on Friday, before ARMOR ALL Qualifying for Race 1 at 6:25pm.

On Saturday, Practice 4 at 10:40am is followed by the ARMOR ALL Top 10 Shootout at 2:05pm.

The 78-lap first race of the new season gets underway at 4:50pm, 90 minutes later than a 3:20pm launch in 2018.

Supercars last raced in twilight conditions on the streets of Adelaide in 2014, pictured.

Sunday's schedule is closer to that used in recent years, with Qualifying and a Shootout for Race 2 at 10:30am and then 12:45pm.

Race 2 itself starts at 3:20pm, identical to last year.

Supercars at the Superloop Adelaide 500 (all times local)

Adelaide will host the Supercars race debut of the Ford Mustang GT, and the start of Scott McLaughlin's title defence.

His chief 2018 championship rival, Shane van Gisbergen has taken clean sweeps in Adelaide the last two years.

Also on the schedule, the 2019 Dunlop Super2 Series starts with three 19-lap races, and the ECB SuperUtes Series with three eight-lap races.